Tag Archives: Togue Brawn
Togue Brawn – The Scallop Evangelist of Maine
Twelve years ago, Brawn started her company, Downeast Dayboat, to introduce dayboat-harvested Maine scallops to the masses. Brawn buys from small boats that often drag the bottoms of inshore crags along the Gulf of Maine and land their bounty a few hours later — as opposed to the bulk of sea scallops eaten in the U.S., which are often sourced from large trip boats that work federally managed offshore waters three or more miles off the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Virginia, staying at sea for a week or more. Because of the challenges and expense of quickly shipping out her fresh dayboat scallops, comparatively few people outside of Maine have gotten to sample Brawn’s. “I started this business to show that [our] scallops are truly different,” >click to read< 15:47
This Maine fishery owner tries to keep an even keel amid volatile scallop prices
High food prices are hurting households and restaurants alike. Grocery prices for meat, poultry, fish and eggs jumped 12.5% over 2021, according to the consumer price index. Restaurants are fighting inflation by getting creative with menus and portion sizes. But how do you run a business that supplies restaurants when your costs change month to month, week to week or even day to day? That’s what Maine’s fishing industry is dealing with. Togue Brawn, a self-proclaimed “Maine scallop evangelist” and owner of Downeast Dayboat fishery in Bath, said prices for the mollusks have been “through the roof” recently. With fishing quotas, a scarcity in scallops and rising inflation across the country, top-quality scallops cost as much as $38 per pound. >click to read< 12:51
The Seagan Movement: Are Scallops Actually Vegan?
When it comes to bivalves, the line between plant and animal is unclear. The rules of veganism, at first glance, seem pretty clear. Vegans don’t consume any food derived from animals.,, Now, to complicate matters further, there’s an entire movement dedicated to seagan eating, which argues that seafood truly belongs in a vegan diet.,, “Eating products from well-managed fisheries benefits the environment in many ways,” explains Togue Brawn of Maine-based scallop supplier Downeast Dayboat. >click to read< 07:41
Maine shelled out fewer prized scallops in 2018
Maine’s scallop harvest declined by about a third in 2018, marking the first time in several years that the valuable fishery took a step back. The state’s scallop harvest is a drop in the bucket within the worldwide industry, but Maine scallops are prized because of their size and value. Maine scallops are also a conservation success story. >click to read<16:53
Maine: Scallop fishermen near end of season
The Maine scallop fishing season opened during the first week of December and now, with two weeks or less remaining, reports on how good a season it has been are decidedly mixed. On the good side of the ledger, there seemed to be plenty of scallops, often in places where none have been seen for years, Melissa Smith, who coordinates scallop management for the Department of Marine Resources, said last week. >click to read<11:16
Maine: Plenty of scallops, but prices are low
The price for scallops so far this season is considerably lower than last year. The Ellsworth American reported that with the start of the scallop season on Dec. 1 the price per pound is down $2 to $3 from 2016’s average of $12.77. It also appeared that scallops were plentiful, but small, which generally means lower prices. “I’ve heard the price is going to be low this year, but a lot of dealers were quoting prices last week that I thought were absurd,” Togue Brawn, owner of Downeast Dayboat Scallops in Portland, told the newspaper. click here to read the story 11:25
Federal regulators put an end to turbulent season in northern Gulf of Maine scallop fishery
Federal authorities are closing the scallop fishery in the northern Gulf of Maine at 12:01 a.m. Thursday after a contentious three-week season that pitted the interests of part-time, small-boat fishermen from Maine against large, full-time scallop operators. Fisheries regulators announced the closure Wednesday after small-boat fishermen – many of them Maine lobstermen operating 40- to 45-foot boats – met their annual quota of 70,000 pounds. The developments do not apply to the scallop fishery in state waters, which extend to 3 miles from shore. This year’s federal harvest has been contentious because the large, full-time boats are believed to have caught more than 1 million pounds of scallops in the northern Gulf of Maine scallop fishing area, but owing to a quirk in federal rules the fishery could not be closed until the small vessels caught 70,000 pounds. This month’s storms and unseasonable weather had kept the small boats in port, delaying their ability to meet their annual quota and close the area to the larger vessels, who were permitted to continue harvesting large quantities of scallops under federal rules. continue reading the story here 07:57
Out-of-state scallop boats threaten survival of Maine fishermen
After years of waiting for the northern Gulf of Maine scallop population to flourish, small-boat fishermen from Maine say federal mismanagement of scallop stocks in the area could result in larger boats wiping them out. Hancock fisherman James West said that larger boats, most of which are based out of state, should not be allowed unlimited catches when he is capped at harvesting only 200 pounds of meat a day. And he said he’s angry that the New England Fishery Management Council has known about the regulatory disparity for years and has done nothing to address it. “That’s what makes me so mad about it,” West said Sunday. “I’m shocked the council couldn’t figure out a way to fix this. We’re really getting the shaft.” Council officials say protecting the lucrative resource is a high priority that they plan to address in the coming year. But Maine fishermen say a year could be too late to ensure that federal scallop grounds in the gulf stay productive. continue reading the story here 07:36
Maine Scallop fishermen stay close to home
Scallop divers might have been feeling optimistic, due to a steady increase in landings in recent years, when the fishery started for the winter season on Dec. 1. But the number of scallop draggers showing up in Cobscook Bay on their opening day, Dec. 5, seemed to indicate a certain pessimism. Trisha Cheney, the resource management coordinator for scallops for the Maine Department of Marine Resources told The Quoddy Tides that only 69 boats showed up for opening day. That’s about half the size of the fleet that has been in the bay at the start of the season during many years. Almost all of the boats were local Cobscook Bay boats. In the past, many draggers from ports to the west have traveled to Cobscook Bay to fish. This year, the fleet was apparently more spread out. Cheney told the paper that 76 draggers were fishing in the Jonesport area this year. Read the rest of the story here 14:03
Small Boat Fishermen Worry New Rules Won’t Come in Time to Save N. Atlantic Scallops
A quandary over scallop rules has two groups of fishermen in Maine at odds over the increasingly lucrative shellfish. Kristan Porter, is an independent fisherman who catches lobsters for most of the year with his boat “Brandon Jay.” But for additional income, for five months each year, he and the two other men on his boat have begun collecting scallops. Eric Hansen, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, is one of the permit holders that aren’t bound by the same quota that Porter and others follow. Hansen, who typically fishes south of Maine, returned to the Gulf of Maine this year for the first time in decades. His family business obtained one of the permits back in 1994 for free that now could be sold for millions of dollars. Read the rest here 08:41
